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Family Law

Cohabitation - living together

There are over four million couples living together in England and Wales in cohabitation. Although cohabitants are now given legal protection in several areas, they and their families have significantly fewer rights and responsibilities than people who are married or who have formed a civil partnership.
Most people think that, after they've been living with their partner for a couple of years, they become 'common law husband and wife' with the same rights as married couples. This is not the case. In fact, couples who live together have hardly any of the same rights as married couples or civil partners.
There is no such thing as ‘common law marriage’.

As far as the law is concerned, common law marriage hasn’t existed in England and Wales since 1753!

In fact, couples who live together have hardly any rights compared with married
couples or civil partners. Many of them only find this out when it’s too late to do
anything about it: when their relationship has broken down or their partner has died.
Often all they can do by this time is get into a legal battle, putting themselves through
even greater stress and worry during what is already a traumatic period of their lives.

If you are living together as a couple, there are steps you can take to protect yourself and your partner. There are also ways to minimise the legal and financial problems which may arise if, as can happen, you decide to separate, or if one of you dies.
You can find out about the current rights of cohabiting couples from us at Nationwide Solicitors. We can also provide advice on how to protect yourself and your family, should you wish to do so.

So, what happens if you split up now?

? Your ex doesn’t have to pay you any maintenance for your own benefit…

… even if you’ve given up work to look after the kids or your home (although they will still have to pay child support for their children).

? If you rent your home…

… and the tenancy is in your ex’s name only, you will have no automatic right to stay if your ex asks you to leave or walks out.

? If your ex owns the home…

… and there’s no other agreement or understanding in place, you will have no automatic right to stay if your ex asks you to leave.

? If there’s no other agreement in place…

… your ex will walk away with all the savings and possessions they built up out of their own money. Where you bought things together but each contributed different amounts to the price, you own it in the shares in which you contributed.

? If you’re a dad…

… and haven’t jointly registered yourself with the mother as the child’s father on the birth certificate since 1 December 2003, you will not automatically have parental responsibility.

And if your partner dies?

? If they haven’t made a will…

… you won’t automatically inherit anything from them, including the family home if it’s in their name or if you own it jointly as ‘tenants in common’ .

? You will not get any state bereavement benefit…

… or a state pension based on a percentage of your ex’s national insurance contributions, even if you had given up work to look after the kids and depended on your partner’s income.

? If they have made a will…

… and what you inherit is worth more than the Inheritance Tax allowance limit, you will have to pay inheritance tax.

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Civil partnership

Same-sex couples can have their relationships legally recognised as 'civil partnerships'.
Civil partners must be treated the same as married couples on a wide range of legal matters, including:

tax, including Inheritance Tax
employment benefits
most state and occupational pension benefits
income-related benefits, tax credits and child support
their duty to provide reasonable maintenance for their civil partner and any children of the family
ability to apply for parental responsibility for their civil partner's child
inheritance of tenancy agreements
protection from domestic violence
immigration and nationality purposes

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How to register a civil partnership
In order to form a civil partnership you must first give notice of your plans. This involves letting a registration office know about your intention to register a civil partnership.
Once you've done that, notices are publicised by the registration authority for a period of 15 days, similar to marriage notices. A civil partnership can be formed in England and Wales at register offices or other approved locations. You can get a list of approved places from your local council.
The General Register Office has detailed information on how to go about forming a civil partnership.

Civil Partnership Dissolution
Civil partnership dissolution is for same-sex couples who have formed a legally recognised civil partnership which has ended.
To obtain a civil partnership dissolution you must have been in either a registered civil partnership, or recognised foreign relationship, for twelve months. To begin the dissolution process you must complete a form, called a “Petition”, giving the reasons (the “facts”) why you are applying, to show that the civil partnership is definitely over. The process is a court based one and the person applying for the dissolution will have to provide evidence to the court that the civil partnership has broken down irretrievably.
If you have children you must also complete a form called a “statement of arrangements” in which you tell the court what plans you have made for the children once the dissolution is final, e.g. who will care for them and what arrangements you have made for their support.
After lodging the petition with the court there are several other stages to progress through before the dissolution may be granted. The Dissolution process is similar to the Divorce process. Please refer to the Divorce page of this website for details.

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If you would like to obtain confidential legal advice on any matrimonial matter then please contact our family law specialist solicitors. So, if you have any questions or would like our help with counselling or mediation conciliation please do not hesitate to contact us on 020 8983 8944 or by email on info@nwsolicitors.com.

Family Law

Cohabitation - living together

Civil partnership

tax, including Inheritance Tax

employment benefits

most state and occupational pension benefits

income-related benefits, tax credits and child support

their duty to provide reasonable maintenance for their civil partner and any children of the family

ability to apply for parental responsibility for their civil partner's child

inheritance of tenancy agreements

protection from domestic violence

immigration and nationality purposes

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